Competition probe wipes £310m off two pet firms

NEARLY £310m was wiped off the value of two vet firms after the competition watchdog opened a formal investigation into the industry.

Investors were spooked, with £262m wiped off the value of CVS, sending shares down 25pc, or 365p, to 1092p, and Pets at Home plunged by £46m or 3.6pc, or 9.8p, to 265.4p. That reduced the value of the businesses by a combined £308m.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had identified ‘multiple concerns’ following a six-month review with more than 56,000 responses from the public and the sector.

This included fears that pet owners are being over-charged for medicines or prescriptions.

With the CMA starting a formal probe, its boss Sarah Cardell said the ‘unprecedented’ response ‘shows the strength of feeling on this issue is high and why we were right to look into this’.

The CMA started reviewing the vet market in September last year due to concerns about the lack of disclosure and weak competition.

The watchdog said most practices fail to display prices on their websites. Pets at Home, which has nearly 450 vet practices, said it was ‘incredibly disappointed’ by the regulator’s findings.

The company added that it has worked closely with the CMA, adding that its vet practises are run independently and set their own prices. A spokesman said: ‘Pricing, product choices and service provisions are all determined locally by them to provide the best general practice care for their patients in their community.’

CVS – the biggest London-listed vet group – said it will continue to work ‘proactively’ with the CMA.

On the wider market, the FTSE 100 rose 1pc, or 78.58 points, to 7747.81 and the FTSE 250 added 0.2pc, or 35.12 points, to 19565.21. London’s top index hit its highest level since May last year after Ladbrokes and Coral owner Entain made gains following reports the gambling giant is considering selling its online poker business.

The group is working with advisers from Oakvale Capital to offload its PartyPoker unit that could be worth around £150m, Sky News reported. Shares increased 3.8pc, or 27.6p, to 762.4p. Firms often issue more stock when trying to raise more money to support the business. Renalytix, a kidney disease testing developer, brought in £9m ($12m) by issuing nearly 47m new shares at 20p each to investors in the UK and US. That represented a 50pc discount on the previous day’s closing price.

The company expects the fresh funds to last through to the final quarter of this year.

And commercial property investor Regional REIT told shareholders it needed to shore up its finances and could issue new shares ‘at a material discount’ to the current stock price. Shares in Renalytix tumbled 20pc, or 8p, to 32p and Regional REIT plunged 30pc, or 6.05p, to 14.1p.

Footwear group Shoe Zone suffered a sluggish end to its autumn and winter season. Shares lost 17.1pc, or 48p, to 232p.